how to, for a transport

i thought abough doing this but it ends up as cutting the railing into tiny wedges and then i loose the smooth line of the dowl, it sort of looks like a octagon when i tryed doing it around the back of the hull, and it just kept breaking and splitering the dowl, so i threw it at a wall after three attempts and failings
but this would work on hulls that are less curvey, like the long shallow curves of a battle ship hull.
i think ill try the silcon and cling rap on this hull, but i really want to do steam and bend the wood when it comes to my Richelieu hull, it just looks so much nicer with one beam all the way allong the hull,

 

so for the next part ill show how i installed mu rudder and prop,
ok, the first setp is to get your prop screwed onto the end of the prop shaft, for this i soldered mine on with a smaller tube in the thred of the prop so that it would fit on the shaft, but it would be better to use a prop with a grub screw in it as it just easyer to put on,
so with the prop in mark out were the rudder post will go, for the tube that the post will go in just use some of the tubeing that was used as the bushings in the stuffing tube as the rudder post will be the same as the prop shaft, cheaper to use left over materials then but new tube and rod,
so to mark the rudder position lay the hull on the plans and mark it using a texta

next check the positon using the tube as a guide, again lay the hull on the plans and line up the position with the tube on the marking to see if its in the right spot, remember its better to check twice and cut once, or in this case drill once, i tend to check more then twice becasue if its in the rong spot youll end up having a big hole in the hull and the tube floping around when you come to gluing it in,
so once youve line up the rudder post use the reamer and mark the positon, then get a drill bit slightly over size of the tube and drill the hole, insert the tube to see if its in the right spot, if not youll have to work the hole out with the drill bit,

next is making the rudder,
for this youll need a soldering iron, solder(60/40), liquid flux, sheet brass and the rudder post,
first, get your plans and photocopy the rudder and inlarge it by 141%, which will give you a over all increase of 200% in rudder area, this is a way to make the boat turn better and is permitted by the AUSBG rules, you dont have to do this if you dont want but if you have a smaller ship it will help the boat turn,
so, cut out the new size rudder and shape it to the boat,

when doing this you cannot cut off rudder area and add it to another part of the rudder, so be carfull of the bits you chose to remove, and place it on the sheet brass

then note where the rudder post will go and bend the sheet around the post

the idea is to get a nice rain drop shape to the rudder,

a tip when bending the brass, use a block of wood and a clamp, place the block on the brass where the post will go and slowly tighten the clamp checking to see when the clamp is removed the brass stays in the rain drop shape and touches the other side of the brass as well, its very important that when the clamp is removed it stays touching as it will make soldering it very easy

take note of where the wood is, its not all over the rudder but up to where the post will go

next, take a scewer or somthing not metal and the same thickness of the rudder post and slide it into where the rudder post will be and then drag it towards the back of the rudder, what your doing is prying apart the rudder so that you can solder the end togther,

next, apy flux to were the rudder ends meet and tin it up with solder, youll want to put lots on as less wont really help the to sides of the rudder to stick together

next, get some flux on the other side of the rudder, remove the scewer and check to see if the ends still touch when its remove, if not just rebend it with the clamp and wood,
then, just heat up the solder thats all ready on the brass and it will run on the other side of the rudder sticking them together, then just run up and down the rudder with solder

adding more and more solder untill you get about 1cm of solder from the end of the rudder in, when looking at it from the end

next is soldering in the rudder post, for this, dont cut the rudder post to the size you want, instead use the whole rod, its much easyer this way as you can hold it with out burning yourself

then, mark out where the rudder is going to be on the rod and flux this area and tin with solder, then put the rod back into the rudder, lining up the markings and solder part with the rudder
now this part is a bit more tricky as you need to need to get flux in the rudder all the way down the rod, for this i used a scewer, dipped it in the flux and then with the rudder on an angle use gavity and capilliary action to get the flux down the rod and into the rudder, keep adding flux till it comes out the other end, this way you know that flux is all the way into the rudder,

then solder the rod into the rudder, for this with the solder iron tip on one end of the rudder and rod, making sure to touch the rudder brass and the rod with the tip, feed in the solder from the other end of the rudder and it will melt when it touches the tip, creating a heat bridge that will melt the rest inside the rudder, keep feeding in the solder untill it has made a convex shape with the inside of the rudder at both ends

then, its a matter of cutting the rod off on one end of the rudder and shaping the rudder to the cut out off the plans

and thats the rudder made
next is simple, glueing the rudder tube in the hull,
i used some urathane glue for my hull as i want the rudder to 'give' when it is hit by the ball bearings shot at it, the urathane glue sets pritty hard, but it is slightly flexable,
so, put the post in the hull and tape it in position as if it were glue in, like the prop shaft, make sure that rudder is straight with the prop, both from the back and the side,



notice that the tube is not cut to the right lengh, as its easyer to handle when gluing and and setting the postion with tape,
then when its in the right spot, untape the tube from the hull, just enough to get it to move so that you can get the glue in, then put some glue from the inside of the hull on the tube and hole and replace the tube and tape it back in postion, let it dry, if you are using the urathane glue, its a slow drying glue so check on it every so often to make sure that the forces of evil haven't moved it off the spot you want.
next will be mounting the rudder servo and trimming the rudder tube and post,

 

Wow, nice-looking rudder! Great job, there. A few questions to think about:

will you be painting your prop and rudder the same color as the underwater hull, or will you be polishing them up for the nice-and-shiny show-it-off metal look? IMHO metalwork that nice should be shown off, but not everyone agrees.

What will you use to fill the gap in the rudder? Epoxy, solder, superglue, or something else?

Will you be installing a pintle to help protect the prop and rudder from rocks, moss, bbs, and other debris?

 

well, i really wanted a chrome rudder and prop, but i dont have any chrome solution to electroplate them with, so i guess pollished brass will have to do, but i solderd on the outside of the rudder (which is what i was desperatly tryng to avoid) so i dont know how it will look when polished, may have to spray a clear finish over it after ive polished to prevent the solder from going black again,
for the gap, i was thinking useing either explanding foam, or urathane glue, and trimming it up with a hobby knife when it drys,
buy pintle, is that the little protective rod that goes on the bottole of the hull under the prop and them is meant to connect with the rudder?
if so, yes, ill just cut out a brass strip and screw it to the bottom of the hull,
oh i forgot to ad this in my tips, it easyer to just by a rudder from on of the online rc warship combat stores like strikemodels, or battlersconnection, ect, but i just like the look of shiny brass, plus its cheaper to make it your self rather then pay postage thats double the cost of the materails to make it from stratch,

 

me too! There's something special about nicely soldered and polished brass. Even though it's not as hydrodynamic, or as easy as buying a premade rudder, it's just so much nicer. I haven't found any good way of protecting the brass from corrosion, so I just polish it up every time the ship gets reskinned. The solder isn't much of a problem, it stays nice and shiny as long as you've cleaned all the flux off. The hardest part is covering the shiny metal parts up so they don't get painted when I spray the hull.
A pintle is the piece that goes between the skeg and the rudder, that supports the rudder during maneuvers and helps protect the prop. It does interfere with disassembling the prop and rudder assembly, so most skippers omit it.I considered including one on my transport, but decided against it when the local pond's weed problem was... dealt with by the SCV Water District. Whether you want one or not depends on your own local conditions. If you're expecting lots of weeds, minefields, or very shallow water, then a pintle may be useful. Or if you're planning an ultra-high-detail historically accurate boat, and are willing to sacrifice ease of maintenance. But other than that, a pintle isn't really worth it. Still, it is a feature worth considering. Better to think about it and decide against it than to not know about the possibility in the first place.

 

yeah, i just checked to see how i would do it, but it wont support the rudder, oh and i just finished polishing my prop and rudder, pics shortly,

 

boat bling

 

ok, next part of installing the rudder post and tube,
so, with the glue dry, measure the rudder tube so that it will be just below the deck

notice ive put a small cross piece of caprailing in that is some left over from the routed 12mm dowl, this is just so i can put the cap railing all the way around the back on the boat to seal it, but more on that later.
so, cut off the tube on the mark, and put the rudder in, try to remove any burs or metal shavings left by the dremel,
next, you will need a rudder arm, the type you want is one with a brass insert and a grub screw, mine is an old brass rudder arm off a rc plane, then put the arm over the post and slide it down into postion, you want a tiny bit of up and down movement when the grub screw is tighted up on the post, this will stop the rudder from binding up when it turns,

now becasue youve got the arm on, it will be above the deck line, this is so you can cut it down bit by bit untill its just at the right level, like in the pic
next, mark were the top of the rudder arm is on the post, then take off the arm, slide the rudder out ant cut it off on the mark,
with it all done, check to see if you cut it off at the right spot by re assembleing it

you may need to trim the rudder arm so that it doesnt hit any thing when it rotates, as ive done with mine,
now, if you have enough length in the rudder tube you will really want to put a metal coller in as well( the type with a grub screw) under the rudder arm, this is so that if the grub screw on the rudder arm becomes lose the rudder wont fall out,
also, try to use all the same size grub screws in your rudder set up, this saves time when changing the rudder as you wont have to looking around for tools and is saves money if you lose any becasue usally one packet will have enough screws to replace each one in a single rudder setup,
also heres a pic of my finished set up, notice that ive put a ball and socket joint on the rudder arm, this is so when i have to change the servo, i just pop it off, unscrew the servo horn, change the servo and pop it back on, basicly just one screw for the servo horn and two more for the servo itself, both the same size screw driver, although not tested in combat it seems like it will work,

also, ive had to put the rudder arm on upside down so that it doesnt hit the bottom of the deck, make sure what ever set up you use that its free moving and the is no rubbing through the whole travel of the rudder movement,
also, theres more cap railing on the boat in the above pic aswell, as you can see its done in stright pieces that have been shaped to the hull profile, also there are two thicker blocks as mention before that will be used for screwing the deck down to seal it and help prevent splashes from sinking the boat faster, also ive added more of these 12mm dowl pices across each end of the lower deck for same reason,

 

next is making the decks, this so far is the simiplest step, all you need to so is first trace the top of the hull on some card board, then cut it out, keep trimming the cardboard untill they fit into the caprailing


then trace the cardboard decks onto some 3mm plywood, better to use marine plywood, then cut all the decks out, sand them to fit so that when you have one egde in postion and you drop the other edge they fall into the right postion, ie, the are able to fit in very easely with no tightness or binding, this is to allow for the thin layer of paint or clear coating that will be used to seal the decks,
then when done they should look like:

now the hull is starting to look more like a ship
next will be mounting the servo

 

w00t! now that is what I like to see. What did you use for polish, and did you apply a protective coat to prevent future corrosion?

 

car polish and the polish wheel thingy that comes with the dremel, and im unsure what to use as a clear finish, i cant think of aything that wont shatter when hit by the bb's, any sugestions? i considered dipping it in a tub of urethane glue becasue it runs off like water for a few hours before it sets and its sort of flexable

 

That's a good question. Odds are against getting hit hard in the rudder. On the other hand, my little transport has a pretty solid dent in its rudder, so even unlikely things can happen.

 

This is what scale modelers have been using for years as a protectant, sealer, and amazing gloss coat:
www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html
Trust me, this stuff the Da BombTM. It is self leveling, and since it is an acrylic, it is very hard. It uses Windex as a thinner/sleaner/stripper. You might need to apply it a couple of times per season, getting wet and all, but if you apply before winter storage, it will still look new when spring comes. I have plastic models that this has sat on for years and still look great.

 

Wow that is some great stuff and I would have never thought to use it. Thanks for that one...